17-year-old stock car driver nurtures her need for speed, advances racing career

Amanda Harrison slips into a pink, flame-resistant driving suit before jumping into her newest stock racing car, a 3,000-pound super late model that her parents bought her last year for her 16th birthday. The used car, which cost her parents about $12,000, is her fourth racing car. It is kept in a 20-foot trailer in front of her family’s home in Beach Haven.

Photo by Ryan Morrill
Amanda Harrison shows off her newest
race car and latest winning trophies.

The 17-year-old Southern Regional High School student, who swears she also loves “girly things,” such as shopping and hearts, first became interested in stock car racing seven years ago after watching NASCAR with her father and attending a motor sports camp in Virginia. She has continued to nurture her need for speed by traveling across the country to compete in races, driving one of her two minicup stock cars, which are about half the size of a NASCAR stock car and can travel at speeds of 90 mph.

“It’s like a NASCAR, but it’s shrunken down to probably 10 feet long and maybe 3 feet high. They’re cute,” said Harrison.

Minicup races offer an entry-level stock car racing experience for new drivers. Although Harrison is still eligible to compete in minicups, she has decided to move on to late model racing to help her achieve her dream of becoming a NASCAR driver. Late model race cars are the highest class of local stock car racing vehicles at many race tracks in North America and Australia. Many drivers of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, the de facto premier series of stock car racing, have raced in the class while progressing through their career.

Harrison said she used to use local NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Martin Truex Jr.’s racing numbers, but eventually decided to choose 58 as her individual number.

“I need my own number. I can’t be working off of somebody else’s,” said Harrison. “Once I got 58, my luck started turning around; I was doing a lot better. I was more consistent on my finishes, and I won a couple. It was nice.”

Harrison’s mother, Tammy, said her daughter has always been on the move, walking at just 8 months old. As a kid she received affectionate nicknames such as “sprocket” and “the Energizer bunny.”

Photo by Ryan Morrill
The late model stock car
weighs 3,000 pounds.

“I am so nervous when she’s on the track. I pace,” said Tammy. “I try to videotape her, but it’s very, very stressful to be a mom and to watch your daughter on the track. It’s a very dangerous sport. When you’re going 90 miles an hour, anything can happen. She has the best equipment that she can have; we always make sure she’s in the car as safe as she can be, but it’s racing. A car could lose control right in front of her. It can happen in a split second,” she added.

Harrison was hit by another driver and T-boned into a cement wall in October, resulting in a shoulder injury. Although she has suffered a concussion and hand injury during other races, she claims she actually acquires more injuries playing school sports.

“That’s racing. With racing there’s going to be wrecks, and with wrecks there’s going to be injuries. It’s just the nature of the beast,” said Harrison.

After spending nearly a decade learning how to master the skills of minicup racing, which requires intense focus and a keen understanding of both math and science to determine calculations such as track temperatures and tire pressures, Harrison said she now has to learn a whole new racing skill set. Late model stock cars are two-thirds the size of a NASCAR stock car, have a manual transmission and can go as fast as 150 mph.

“We bought a pickup truck and made her practice driving stick before we let her get into the (late model) car,” said Tammy.

Harrison has also been racing in an eight-week winter go-karting league at Speed Raceway in Cinnaminson to help prepare her for the new season, which begins in March and ends in November. She hopes to compete in as many of the Pro All Star Series races offered, but said she will probably only be able to race in a few since the late model racing expenses are considerably more than the costs for minicups.

“One set of tires (which need to be changed during every race) for this thing costs $750, and God forbid there’s a wreck or a blown-out motor. That would cost about $10,000, easily,” said Harrison’s father and crew chief, Bruce.

Many of the other leagues Harrison has competed in have folded from lack of participation, mostly due to the recession, said Tammy.

Photo by Ryan Morrill
The Beach Haven resident gears up
for a new season of racing.

Despite having to care for four other children, Harrison’s parents said they cover about 75 percent of her racing costs. To help fill the gap, Harrison continues to apply for sponsorships. The Chicken or the Egg in Beach Haven has sponsored the local resident since she started racing. Although she lost many sponsors due to Superstorm Sandy, she is currently sponsored by Coastal Design, Sea Spray Motel, Sea Pirate Campground, Newman’s Own salad dressing and Herr’s snacks. She is also in the running for a $50,000 sponsorship from Champion Spark Plugs.

“She really wants to do it, and it’s her dream. So we’re trying to get her as far as we can,” said Tammy.

A typical minicup season usually costs the family about $20,000 to $30,000, when factoring in racing gear, car parts, track rentals, gas, competition fees, lodging and traveling expenses. The season for late model racing will likely cost $50,000 to $75,000, said Tammy.

Despite the high cost, the love for racing has trickled down through the family. Harrison’s brother, Jake, 10, plans to start racing in minicups next season. Harrison has been customizing one of her minicup cars during school at the Ocean County Vocational Technical School in Jackson, and said she will hand it down to her brother when it is finished.

“He’s going to follow me, and I’m going to give him pointers,” said Harrison. “I didn’t have that. I didn’t have anyone really helping me, but I want to do that for my brother.”

Although Harrison occasionally misses school to attend a race, she manages to complete all of her homework on time, studying in the car and working on projects in hotel rooms between races held all over the country, including Virginia, Florida, North and South Carolina, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama. She has even managed to stay on the honor roll.

Harrison also makes it a point to share her racing experience with the community. Last year she spoke at the Eagleswood Township Elementary School where Beach Haven’s students were relocated while the Island school was being repaired from Sandy damage.

Although Harrison is proud to be a female stock car driver, she said she has been victim of jealousy by her male counterparts. She said she has been verbally attacked and was once intentionally rear-ended by a 50-year-old, male opponent who “was so intimidated and did not want to lose to a girl.”

If she does not make it as a NASCAR driver, Harrison plans to attend college to earn a bachelor’s degree in motorsports technology. She also hopes to learn how to surf and snowboard.

“I love thrills,” she said.

–Kelley Anne Essinger

This article was published in The SandPaper.